THE HOT CORNER: Iwamura: Tampa Bay confidential

by Jim Allen (Feb 12, 2009)

Moving to second base after a lifetime spent at third could have
been a gut-wrenching decision, but Akinori Iwamura made short work of
it.

"Some time in September [2007] the manager came to me and said,
'We'd love to have you play second base next year if you want to give
it a try,'" Iwamura told The Hot Corner last week on how Tampa Bay
skipper Joe Madden broached the subject.

"I was thinking it over, when he asked me if I wanted to play a game
there and try it out. So I started the last game of the season, in
Toronto, at second. Afterward he asked me what I thought.

"I said, 'Yeah, I can do this.'"

When Tampa Bay posted the winning bid for Iwamura, it had second base in mind even though he had spent almost no time there.

"I played it a little in junior high, but as a pro, I was there just a few games in the minors," he said.

Ranked by Bill James' Win Shares as the fourth most valuable second
baseman in the American League in 2008, Iwamura believes he got the job
done defensively.

"[Boston's Dustin] Pedroia won the Golden Glove, but there wasn't much of a gap between us."

And that's coming from a guy whose Central League career was delayed
due to frequent errors at third base for the Yakult Swallows' farm
team.

Iwamura, who as an 18-year-old in 1997 had a .407 on-base percentage
in the Eastern League with 12 triples and 10 homers in 256 at-bats,
could have made the transition to the CL the next season if it hadn't
been for his fielding. Drafted out of Ehime Prefecture's Uwajima
Higashi High School in the second round, Iwamura made 22 errors in the
EL as a rookie for an abysmal .848 fielding percentage, while turning
just nine double plays.

Left in the minors in 1998, Iwamura showed some improvement with
both the bat and the glove, although his .907 fielding percentage was
still worst among regular EL third basemen.

In 1999, his first real CL season, Iwamura was the worst third
baseman in the league but was rapidly improving, In 2000, he broke
through with a Golden Glove as the best of a mediocre field.

The confidence gained by winning the first time put his defensive
career into overdrive. Although he never made anyone forget Shigeo
Nagashima's work at the hot corner, Iwamura got better with each season
and ended up with five Golden Glove Awards before trying his luck in
the majors.

Still, there was no indication he'd be able to handle second base,
other than the Rays' belief and his own unshakable confidence.

"I thought, this is something I should be able to do, and I could,"
Iwamura said. "As I found my feet and turned more and more double
plays, my confidence only increased. That said, second is not the kind
of position that you're going to become good at in one year.

"Still, it was a compliment that people thought I could play in the middle of the infield and be a Gold Glove candidate."

Not only did Iwamura prove to be a quality second baseman, the Rays
proved to be a quality team in 2008 by winning their division and their
league after years in purgatory.

Iwamura said not much had surprised him in the majors, having been
briefed by a pair of former major league pitchers on the Swallows.

"I listened to what Kazuhisa Ishii and [Shingo] Takatsu had to say,
and essentially they said that since Tampa Bay wasn't really like a
major league team, there wouldn't be much pressure," Iwamura said. "But
you know, we played major league opponents and we in fact were a major
league team, and then last season...

"I'm extremely happy to have been able to go to a team like that."

Although he'd spoken in the past of his desire for shorter pregame
workouts, the extremely brief major league practices--sometimes even
without BP--took some getting used to.

"You have to be able to switch it on and off: Work when you need to
work, and rest when you need to rest. Sometimes, your first swing is in
the game," he said.

"I actually like that. It keeps you from thinking too much. You just go up there and hit.